Duty and Passion

The preacher at our church is in Romania this week doing missions work, so today we had a pinch-preacher.Â He seemed a good man, conversant with the Word, and delivered a good message.Â His message was about the heart, not the physical heart, but the metaphysical heart.Â Of note to me was a comment about passion and duty.

He made the point that so much of what we do, scurrying about upon the surface of this little globe, is done of duty.Â Things are done because of schedules, obligations, expectations — all duties, dispatched well, but not what moves us.Â Instead, we need to strive to do things that we’re passionate about, things that move us and inspire us.Â Because they stir our hearts, it’s those things we’ll do well.Â They are the things that we’ll dispatch as a labor of love, and that will further fuel the passionate stir within.Â And those are the kinds of things that can be best used for service in the church.

Like I said, a good message.Â And I didn’t even get the paraphrasing complete!

But it spoke to me, and with a great volume!Â I know the activity I’m most passionate about, and that’s photography — duh!Â :-)Â Now, how to fuel that passion?Â Well, my exhibit is one.Â Talking and working with other photographers (the little clique of photographers that’s sprung up at work, seminars like DLWS) is another.Â And frankly, just working through issues here in my blog is yet another.Â All this keeps the flames stiring within me and that’s a terrific feeling.

In the end though, I would love to find some way of providing God service through this fire that is my photography.Â I have no idea how my photography could help the work of our church or beyond, but if there was a way, that’d be something pretty special.